Is your company locked into the Google or Microsoft Clouds?

Do you know where your data is physically located? In which datacenter? Who has access to it?

If only one of these answers is "no", it's more serious than you might think.

Regain control in 3 steps.

1 - Becoming aware of the problem

Using a Google or Microsoft service can be a source of pride and even joy, at first...

This is where marketing really comes into its own: customers who are happy to pay premium rates, i.e. several hundred or even thousands of euros a month in the case of large teams.

But who really wants to hand over their most precious data to the American giants? Who wants to get caught up in a retention mechanism that's hard to get out of? Who doesn't want to know where their data is, who has access to it, and what is done with it? And pay premium for it...

Without even needing to talk about "Big Brother" (which is a reality, these companies know you better than you know yourself, enabling mass surveillance and subtle manipulation of your search and other results that you can't even notice), such an operation can only be worrying, whether for an individual (even if they have nothing to hide), or for a company, whose business depends in particular on its documents and emails.

If you're able to say "I don't have a choice, everyone else is using it", you're wrong. Other independent solutions do the same job, or even better, for less money, while allowing you to retain full control over your data! Their development is solid, and these tools are being used by more and more people who value control over their data.

2 - Control your emails

Mails are an extremely standard service, and many service providers offer them.

But how do you choose?

A mailbox is not a calendar, a document-editing suite, a coffee machine, or anything else. If you have a problem with one of these services tomorrow, it doesn't have to be linked up in such a way as to complicate the changeover.

Choose a simple provider: a mailbox is a mailbox and should be nothing more than that.

Also, choose a secure provider: any web host or email service provider must comply with email sending standards (rDNS/HELO/SPF/DKIM/DMARC) and actively combat spamming from its network, which is of course the case with LRob, which comes with these security features without any additional configuration on your part.

To connect to the mailboxes, the service provider must supply a standard webmail like Roundcube (free and open-source, perfectly optimized, standard and simple), as well as a POP/IMAP/SMTP connection. For the connection, you'll use either the webmail provided, or the software of your choice (Thunderbird, Outlook, or email apps on smartphones). Need I remind you that LRob also provides Roundcube and POP/IMAP/SMTP connection as standard on all web hosting packages with email included?

An unresolved problem with your service provider? Migration can be as simple as copying mailboxes to IMAP and making clever DNS changes to avoid service interruption. If you need to migrate, even from a Microsoft cloud, contact me!

Host your website and e-mail efficiently, securely and freely with LRob.

3 - The collaborative suite

To work as a team, many use a collaborative suite like those integrated with Microsoft Office 365 or Gmail mailboxes.

But as we've seen, this has nothing to do with a mailbox and should be a separate service.

For this, a free, open-source solution exists: it's called Nextcloud.

More and more data-sensitive professionals are using it. The reason is simple: it's a website like any other, admittedly a little heavier than average, but it can be hosted by any powerful host like LRob!

Well managed with the addition of a document-editing suite like Collabora Online, Nextcloud enables collaborative editing, file sharing with teams or customers, calendar sharing, task management, chat, and much more.

Compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS, Nextcloud lets you access your files from anywhere!

For contacts and calendars, Nextcloud uses the CardDAV and CalDAV standards. On Android, for example, you can use the DAVx5 app to dispense with the Google calendar and contacts altogether, and store everything on Nextcloud. Ideal for business environments.

Host your Nextcloud instance via LRob, with backup and maintenance included.

Any comments or questions? Feel free to comment on this post or to contact me directly.